All Jew, All Day!

(Me and the 3D Night Watch)
Saturday was a mix. I needed a couple of exterior shots which put us in line to see a few sights I’d been hoping to catch.
We started with a shot of the boarding house where my grandfather lived when he first moved to Amsterdam from the town of Enschede, we think it’s were he met my grandmother. She lived in the boarding house as well.

Around the corner was the Hollandsche Schouwburg. A pre war theatre that was used as a staging camp for deporting jews to concentration camps. All that’s left now is the Facade.

(Dutch Jewish Star)

(Jewish War Children)

(Jews Forbidden)
Around the opposite corner was the Resistance Museum commemorating the Dutch WWII resistance movement and relative war events. It really gave a more personal feel to that time. The most amazing thing was a map they had up that showed the concentration of the Jewish population in Amsterdam.

(Nazi map of the Jewish population concentration)
Each black dot represented 10 Jews. Over the apartment block where my father was born and returned after the war, there was a single dot that probably included him, my uncle John, grandfather, and grandmother.

(My families dot, just left of the building marked "Concert-Geb")
As we worked our way west we stopped at Rembrandt’s house. He’s a favorite of mine and the last time I was in Amsterdam it was closed for renovations. I was so glad to finally get inside.

(The Rembrandt House)
It has some of his work but it’s mainly a reproduction of what the house was like when he lived there. How does this fit the days jewish theme? He lived on the Jodenbreestraat, or the “Jewish Broad Street,” the heart of Dutch Jewish life in Rembrandt’s era.

(Check the blue street sihn above the neon sign)
We sauntered through the flower market district and the area behind the palace as we made our way to the Anne Frank House. When we got there late in the afternoon the line was still around the block, as it often is. We decided not to wait and got a picture of a small Anne Frank monument instead. Maybe we would see it later.

(Anne Frank Memorial)
After a stop back at the apartment to clean up and rest we headed back out Chai’s house at the edge of the city, not far from where Joop and Johan both live. Chai is a cousin of my father and a brother to Bennie. He’s the youngest of three siblings in that family and the most Orthodox. Their had been much going back and forth about where we could be hosted for a seder (the ceremonial dinner had on the first 2 nights of Passover). The only big concern with Chai’s place was that as an orthodox jew he couldn’t start until about an hour after sundown (less religious folk tend to relax the timing rules) which meant that between the prayers and the meal it would be a very late night. But Dad and i are both night owls and were happy both to be invited and to get to see Chai and his family. It was especially nice because as the owner of one of the few kosher food store in town, it’s his busy season.
Actually Chai ran a pretty tight ship, although he didn’t skip any parts he kept things rolling and we were done by 2am, which may sound late but Dad and I had made an estimate of 4. So a cab ride later we were happy, full and getting enough sleep to prepare us for the nest day .... “The Grand Holland Tour Deluxe!”